All posts filed under: money

We already discussed buying single private properties, now let’s talk about buying more than one, and of course, renting them out (Sweden). Today our guest is Thomas Brandt, who 17 years ago used his profits derived from his IT consulting firm to purchase four apartments house in Örebro. Today Brandt owns about 250 apartments and runs his own business known as Explicar Affärsutveklirebrong AB. We met Thomas at his office in Stockholm and talked about how to invest, start and run a property management company. How did you start? 17 years ago I realized that the economic climate within the IT industry was becoming stagnant. And because I made some money in the past with my IT firm, I decided to invest in stable, profit-generating long-term assets. So, since I had relatives who owned and operated properties, I decided myself to buy some as well—in Örebro. I knew nothing about property management at the time. Where do you buy? Because I don’t have hundreds of millions in my accounts, I buy houses in relatively smaller cities, …

One of my favorite real estate investment strategies that works well in Sweden is Book-Sell (read here about Buy-Repair- Sell and Buy-Rent- Sell ). Book-Sell involves new construction projects where you book, for example, an apartment at a planned building site and sell it before the house and apartment are even finished. There are a lot of construction companies out there with a long-standing history of building and doing business. The Purchasing Process First you need to locate a building project. Search the net and you’ll find what you’re looking for. Next, after finding a suitable project and location, contact a broker about selling you one or more of the apartments. Once a real estate firm has accepted you as a client, you will need pay anywhere from 20k – 50k (SEK) as a booking fee, then 8-10 months later you will be required to pay and extra 80k – 100k (SEK) to secure the ownership of the real estate (binding agreement). Booking details vary with different construction companies, but for the most part, they are all very similar. (Pros) …

Last time we spoke about profiting from a real estate investment using an exit strategy. Today we add more (exit) strategies. The Buy-Rent–Sell strategy we discussed earlier is an endeavor that usually lasts only 1-2 years. In other words, cash-in while the getting is good. In the last 20 years, Swedish real estate has increased in value with the exception of 2008 when prices were slightly down, but then suddenly increased the following years. The funds acquired from the sale of property (the exit) is a huge plus when added to the cash flow created from rent. Today, a 50 square meter apartment in Solna would cost you roughly 2M SEK, which can then be sold for 3M SEK in 1.5 years. That’s 1M SEK in cash flow on a 300,000 SEK investment. Couple that with cash flow from rent, and your ROI would triple! STRATEGY 2: Buy–Repair–Sell This strategy still works in the UK and other countries, but seldom is it profitable in Sweden—however, it was profitable several years ago. In comparison to other real …

(This is the second article from Real Estate Investment collection. Read previous here) There are a lot of ways to make money in real estate. As an investor, let’s take a look at some of the ways to receive a POSITIVE RETURN on your investment. There’s more than one exit strategy and scenario in order to achieve realistic, sustainable returns on real-estate investing. We will discuss this with a global perspective, and of course cover the Swedish market—as well as touch upon current regulations. Investor’s role Everybody is an investor. If you are into building, renovating, or even cooking, sooner or later it will become your profession and consume most of your time—thus, time is an investment. So, making financial decisions also require an investment in time. You will need to read and understand financial markets, local regulations, geographical areas, building codes and perform market research. But, it is the type of investment that will determine how much of a time-investment effort you need to put in. When you place assets into an investment, it …

As a matter of fact it does. So why continue reading this article if you already know the answer? Read on and learn why real estate investment works in Sweden. Historical data. Swedish real estate prices were far less volatile than, for instance, Norway and Holland between 1875 and 1957. However, since 1981 Swedish real estate values have consistently risen—even during 1991-1994 when economies around the globe suffered.Overall Swedish real estate value has increased 13.2% over the last 120 years. Between 1995 and 2011 real estate prices grew at the average rate of 5.7% annually. Compared even to the USA (0.4% annual increase 1892-2004), this is a surprisingly optimistic number! Big city power! Stockholm and Gothenburg are right now seeing tremendous growth rates. In 2014 and 2015, Stockholm has expanded its real estate worth by 17 %, Gothenburg 19%, and Sweden as a whole 14 %. Location, location, location! Since 2005 the magic number is (+) 61%! This increase in real estate prices is a reflection of a stable, growing economy.And most native Stockholmers would …

For daily motivation and developing the investment thinking I gathered here my favourite 10 investment quotes. Gladly share them with you! “Know what you own, and know why you own it.” – Peter Lynch “If you aren’t thinking about owning a stock for ten years, don’t even think about owning it for ten minutes.” – Warren Buffett “October: This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February.” – Mark Twain. Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.” – Warren Buffet. “Investing should be more like watching paint dry or watching grass grow. If you want excitement, take $800 and go to Las Vegas.” – Paul Samuelson “I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.” – Warren Buffet “In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable.” – Robert Arnott “How many millionaires do you know who have …

The clothing market is huge! There are roughly 7.1 billion people on this planet who own at least one pair of jeans and a T-shirt. Now, go to your wardrobe and tell me how many pairs of jeans you have…. Do you wear all of them? The issue we have here is that women usually have “nothing to wear” and men don’t know “what they’re wearing.” This leads me to believe that most of us have too much in our wardrobes or too little of the “right” clothes. Either way, there is a solution to getting the most out of what we wear and how to wear it. I decided to talk to Christian Frosch, founder of Men’s Individual Fashion, regarding men’s wardrobe planning. Here’s what his guidance on this matter. SHOES Shoes are the basis of an outfit, both physically and in appearance. Never try to save money on shoes, make it an investment instead. Go for Goodyear welted shoes—and properly take care of them. Remember, good shoes will cost you more, but in the …

Monday evening my friends and I went to Grappe wine Storage located at Grevgatan 5, Stockholm for wine tasting and a seminar called ”Wine as an Investment.” You probably already know about my passion to invest, so obviously I couldn’t miss out on this opportunity. Grappe wine storage is founded by Carl Jan Granqvist, the famous Swedish restaurateur, wine connoisseur and television personality. He explained to us the history of wine, taught us how to taste wine and most importantly talked about recent trends in the wine market. After wine testing, I and my friend – lawyer Casandra Christiansen, successfully kidnapped Carl Jan from the group and asked him some more questions about investing in wine. So here are great tips from the most famous Swedish wine expert Carl Jan Granqvist: Anna – So, I decided to invest in wine! How do I begin? Carl Jan – Interest in wine First, whatever you do, you need to love what you invest in. If you invest in wine, you need to love wine. It should be …

“What does the financially confident woman look like? Well, I’d say she is much more economically literate than ever before, and not just a “caretaker” of somebody else’s money<….> she is fiscally confident and it shows in her investment knowledge, salary, performance bonus and stock options.” The Future of Women in Finance, 2015. Right before International Women’s Day Nordnet gladly presented the business-minded women of Stockholm some valuable insight. Nordnet, which provides brokerage and banking services in Scandinavia, invited Barbara Stewart, Partner and Portfolio Manager at Cumberland Private Wealth Management and a researcher, to present her latest white paper The Future of Women in Finance. Barbara started her research five years ago. (Last year Life as an Investment published an article about Barbara’s research How does smart women invest in 2013?) Ultimately, she was not satisfied with how the media portrayed women in finance. Everything she read was negative, and in contradiction with her experience as a portfolio manager. Then Barbara decided to nix negativity and focus on the positive. The Future of Women in …

I love investments and I consider myself lucky to find pleasure in it. It’s funny when my boyfriend Robin tries to make heads or tails of all the “financial stuff” I talk about. But at least I know he’s a good listener. The other day he asked me about investment opportunities and how to save to invest. Unfortunately, the Millennial or Generation Y (Robin and I are contemporaries) framework of spending behaviour leads us down a path of over consuming and spending money that didn’t exist. So, to spend less we need to change our life-style from consumers to…. something else. We need to change our routines and habits, and that’s the difficult part. The most over-consumed products for young professionals living in cities are clothing and restaurant food (Read more about other most popular spending accounts here). So, changing our life-style and spending habits means buying less of both. But, be prepared to feel a strong sense of emptiness. The power of spending is strong and when it disappears, desolation takes over. Get creative …